英语阅读三篇

Is Education A Robbery?One of our expectations about education is that it willpay off1 in terms of upward mobility. Historically,the correlation between education and income hasbeen strong. But in the early 1970 s acontradiction developed between education and theeconomy. Our value of education and our averageeducational attainment outstripped the capacity ofthe economy to absorb the graduates. Since the 1970s, high-school graduates haveexperienced a striking decrease in earnings, making them the first generation since WorldWarⅡ to face a lower standard of living than their parents had.Experts have argued that this contradiction is at the heart of the problem of public educationtoday. It is not, as business leaders claim, that the schools are failing to properly educatestudents, that they are turning out2 young people who are inadequately prepared to functionin the workplace. The real problem is a dearth of economic opportunities for students who arenot continuing on to college.College graduates also are having difficulty finding jobs. Even when they do, the jobs may notbe commensurate with3 their training and expectations. Part of the problem is that too manyyoung Americans aspire to have professional jobs, making disappointment and frustrationinevitable for some. Many students assumed that what was true of an individu-al — that thehigher the education, the better the job opportunities —would also be true for an entiresociety4. But when the numbers of better-educated young people became too great, theeconomy could no longer absorb themAnother part of the problem is the assumption that greater educational attainment guaranteescareer advancement. In fact, employers do not routinely reward educational attainment; rather,they reward it only when they believe it will contribute to the employee's productivity.We should not overlook the fact that there is still a strong correlation between education,occupation, and income. College graduates have a strong advantage over those with lesseducation. But the payoff is neither as large nor as certain as it once was.Unfortunately, Americans have focused so strongly on the economic payoff that many considertheir college education useless if it does not yield a desirable, well-paying job. Only in thissense can we speak of an "oversupply" of college graduates. 5 We could argue that all or at leastthe majority of Americans would profit by some degree because higher education can enablethe individual to think more deeply,explore more widely, and enjoy a greater range ofexperiences.